7 Steps Every Business Should Take To Improve Cyber Security

Cyber-crime is growing exponentially and according to this Forbes article “the cost of cybercrime is predicted to hit $8 trillion in 2023 and will grow to $10.5 trillion by 2025.” Furthermore,  Nearly half of executives expect cyber attacks targeting accounting, other systems. So, in this digital age where every business is a potential target, what can be done to help prevent your business from becoming the next cyber-crime victim?

Here are 7 steps you can implement right now to increase the cyber security of your business:

1. Keep software up to date

Keeping software up to date is important because software updates often contain security patches that address known vulnerabilities. Cybercriminals are constantly looking for new ways to exploit these vulnerabilities in order to gain unauthorized access to computers and networks. By keeping software up to date, you can help protect your business against these attacks.

In addition to security patches, software updates can also contain new features and improvements that can enhance the performance and functionality of the software. This can help improve productivity and efficiency in your business operations.

Another reason to keep software up to date is to ensure compatibility with other software and systems. Outdated software can cause compatibility issues, which can lead to glitches, errors, and other problems that can negatively impact your business operations.

Furthermore, software vendors often discontinue support for older versions of their software, which means that they will no longer release security patches or provide technical support for those versions. This can leave your business vulnerable to cyberattacks and other security threats.

Overall, keeping software up to date is essential for maintaining the security, functionality, and compatibility of your business systems and reducing the risk of cybercrime.

2. Use strong passwords

Using strong passwords is important because weak passwords are easy to guess or crack, leaving your business vulnerable to unauthorized access and cyberattacks. Here are some reasons why strong passwords are crucial for protecting your business:

1. Preventing brute force attacks: Weak passwords can be easily guessed by automated programs that try thousands or even millions of different combinations of characters. Strong passwords, on the other hand, are much harder to guess, making it more difficult for cybercriminals to crack them through brute force attacks.
2. Protecting against dictionary attacks: Dictionary attacks involve using a list of common words or phrases to guess passwords. Strong passwords that are long, complex, and include a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols are much harder to crack using this method.
3. Protecting against social engineering attacks: Social engineering attacks involve tricking users into revealing their passwords or other sensitive information through phishing emails, phone calls, or other means. Strong passwords that are unique and not easily guessed can help prevent these types of attacks.
4. Protecting against password reuse: Password reuse is a common problem where people use the same password for multiple accounts. If one of these accounts is compromised, all of the other accounts that use the same password are also at risk. Strong, unique passwords can help prevent this from happening.
5. Meeting compliance requirements: Many industries have compliance requirements that mandate the use of strong passwords to protect sensitive data. Failing to comply with these requirements can result in hefty fines and damage to your business’s reputation.

Using strong passwords is a simple but important step in protecting your business from cybercrime and unauthorized access.

3. Educate Your Employees

Educating your employees about cybercrime is important because they are often the first line of defense against cyberattacks. Cybercriminals often use social engineering tactics to trick employees into revealing sensitive information or clicking on malicious links or attachments, which can result in data breaches or other security incidents. Here are some reasons why it’s important to educate your employees about cybersecurity:

1. Identifying and avoiding phishing attacks: Phishing attacks are a common type of cyberattack where cybercriminals send emails that appear to be from a legitimate source in order to trick employees into revealing sensitive information. By educating your employees on how to recognize and avoid phishing emails, you can reduce the risk of data breaches and other security incidents.
2. Protecting sensitive data: Your employees are likely to handle sensitive data such as customer information, financial records, and intellectual property. By educating your employees on how to handle this data securely, you can reduce the risk of data breaches and protect your business’s reputation.
3. Keeping software and systems up to date: Employees can play an important role in keeping software and systems up to date by following security policies and reporting any security incidents or vulnerabilities they may encounter.
4. Reducing the risk of human error: Human error is a common cause of cybersecurity incidents, such as accidentally clicking on a malicious link or attaching a sensitive document to an email intended for someone else. By educating your employees on cybersecurity best practices, you can reduce the risk of these types of incidents.
5. Meeting compliance requirements: Many industries have compliance requirements that mandate employee cybersecurity training to protect sensitive data. Failing to comply with these requirements can result in hefty fines and damage to your business’s reputation.

Educating your employees about cybersecurity is a critical step in protecting your business from cybercrime and other security incidents. By investing in employee training and awareness, you can reduce the risk of data breaches, protect your business’s reputation, and ensure compliance with industry regulations.

4. Use Encryption

Encryption is the process of converting plain text or data into a coded format, which can only be deciphered by someone who has the key to decode it. Here are some reasons why it’s important to use encryption:

1. Protecting sensitive data: Encryption helps protect sensitive data from being intercepted or stolen by cybercriminals. This includes personal and financial information, intellectual property, trade secrets, and other confidential data.
2. Compliance requirements: Many industries have compliance requirements that mandate the use of encryption to protect sensitive data. Failing to comply with these requirements can result in hefty fines and damage to your business’s reputation.
3. Maintaining confidentiality: Encryption ensures that only authorized users can access sensitive data. This helps maintain confidentiality and prevent data breaches or other security incidents.
4. Preventing unauthorized access: Encryption helps prevent unauthorized access to data, even if a cybercriminal gains access to a system or device where the data is stored.
5. Enhancing trust: Encryption enhances trust between businesses and their customers by showing that the business takes data security seriously and is taking steps to protect their customers’ information.
6. Protecting intellectual property: Encryption can protect intellectual property such as patents, copyrights, and trade secrets by ensuring that only authorized users can access this information.

Encryption is an important tool in protecting sensitive data, maintaining confidentiality, and preventing unauthorized access. By using encryption, businesses can comply with industry regulations, enhance trust with customers, and protect their valuable intellectual property.

5. Back up data regularly

Backing up data regularly is critical to protecting against data loss and ensuring business continuity in the event of a disaster or security incident. Here are some reasons why it’s important to back up data regularly:

1. Protecting against data loss: Data loss can occur due to hardware failures, software errors, accidental deletion, natural disasters, and cyberattacks such as ransomware. Regular data backups ensure that data can be restored quickly and easily in the event of data loss.
2. Ensuring business continuity: If a business experiences a data loss incident, it can result in significant downtime and lost productivity. Regular backups help ensure business continuity by minimizing downtime and enabling employees to quickly resume work.
3. Reducing the impact of security incidents: If a business experiences a security incident such as a data breach, restoring data from backups can help minimize the impact and reduce the risk of data loss.
4. Complying with industry regulations: Many industries have compliance requirements that mandate data backup and retention. Failing to comply with these requirements can result in hefty fines and damage to your business’s reputation.
5. Protecting valuable data: Data backups help protect valuable data such as financial records, customer information, and intellectual property. Regular backups ensure that this data can be restored quickly and easily in the event of a disaster or security incident.

Backing up data regularly is critical to protecting against data loss, ensuring business continuity, complying with industry regulations, and protecting valuable data. Businesses should establish a data backup and recovery strategy that includes regular backups, testing backups to ensure they can be restored, and storing backups in a secure location.

6. Restrict access to sensitive data

Restricting access to sensitive data is crucial for maintaining the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the data. Here are some reasons why a business should restrict access to sensitive data:

1. Protecting against data breaches: Sensitive data such as customer information, financial records, and intellectual property are valuable targets for cybercriminals. Restricting access to this data can help prevent data breaches and other security incidents.
2. Complying with industry regulations: Many industries have compliance requirements that mandate the protection of sensitive data. Failing to comply with these requirements can result in hefty fines and damage to your business’s reputation.
3. Preventing insider threats: Employees, contractors, and other insiders can pose a significant threat to sensitive data. Restricting access to this data can help prevent unauthorized access and misuse.
4. Reducing the risk of human error: Accidental deletion or modification of sensitive data can have serious consequences for a business. Restricting access to this data can help reduce the risk of human error.
5. Enhancing trust with customers: Customers trust businesses to protect their sensitive data. By restricting access to this data, businesses can demonstrate that they take data security seriously and are taking steps to protect customer information.

Restricting access to sensitive data is critical to protecting against data breaches, complying with industry regulations, preventing insider threats, reducing the risk of human error, and enhancing trust with customers. Businesses should establish access controls that limit access to sensitive data to only those employees who need it to perform their job responsibilities and implement security measures such as encryption and monitoring to further protect this data.

7. Monitor systems for unusual activity

Monitoring systems for unusual activity is important for detecting and responding to security incidents, protecting against data breaches, and ensuring the integrity and availability of critical systems and data. Here are some reasons why it’s important to monitor systems for unusual activity:

1. Early detection of security incidents: Monitoring systems for unusual activity can help detect security incidents such as data breaches, malware infections, and insider threats early, before they can cause significant damage.
2. Rapid response to security incidents: When unusual activity is detected, security teams can investigate and respond quickly to contain the incident and prevent further damage.
3. Protecting against data loss: Monitoring systems for unusual activity can help prevent data loss by detecting and preventing unauthorized access, modification, or deletion of sensitive data.
4. Ensuring system and data integrity: Monitoring systems for unusual activity can help ensure the integrity of critical systems and data by detecting and preventing unauthorized changes or modifications.
5. Compliance with industry regulations: Many industries have compliance requirements that mandate the monitoring of systems for unusual activity. Failing to comply with these requirements can result in hefty fines and damage to your business’s reputation.

Monitoring systems for unusual activity is critical to detecting and responding to security incidents, protecting against data loss, ensuring system and data integrity, and complying with industry regulations. Businesses should establish a monitoring and alerting system that detects and alerts security teams to unusual activity, as well as establish incident response procedures to respond quickly to security incidents.

Conclusion

Unfortunately, there is no impenetrable digital wall that can be used to surround and protect your business from all threats, but by following the 7 steps above, your business will become a much harder target.

Are you concerned about the security of your small business, but don’t have the time or expertise to implement a comprehensive cyber security strategy? With cyber attacks becoming more frequent and sophisticated, it’s more important than ever to ensure your company’s digital assets are protected. At ArkWare, we specialize in providing comprehensive cybersecurity services to small businesses just like yours. We will perform a thorough review of your network security, identify any vulnerabilities, and provide you with a detailed report of our findings. With our help, you can rest easy knowing that your business is protected from the latest cyber threats. Contact us today to schedule your cybersecurity review and take the first step in securing your company’s future.